Successful projects are the driving force of the growth of HP. This is why successful projects are extremely important because they contribute to the introduction of innovations and consistent improvement of the marketing position of the company. The failure of new projects leads to substantial financial losses and HP faces a risk of being outpaced by its major rivals. In contrast, successful projects can help the company to introduce innovations and to take the leading position in the industry.

2. How far should an evaluation team go in trying to quantify project contributions to the firm’s mission or goals?

The evaluation team should quantify project contributions to the firm’s mission and goals in a reasonable way. What is meant here is the fact that the evaluation team should take into consideration factors that influence the current marketing performance of the company. The mission and goals of the company may need changes under the impact of changes in the business environment and so should the evaluation team adapt quantifying project contributions to these changes.

3. What is the role of financial selection criteria in HP’s project selection process?

The financial selection is important in terms of the forecast of expected return on investments in the project, investments needed and risks associated with the project. As a rule, HP selects the project that provides high return on investments with relatively low risks. HP looks for optimal balance of risks and expected return on investments and the company is ready to invest substantial funds in the development of such projects.

4. Considerable attention is given to the measures HP uses to evaluate its projects. Is the aim of carefully defining these measures to simplify the project selection process or something else?

The project selection is not the only reason for careful defining of measures to evaluate projects. In fact, the company uses these measures to forecast how the target project will meet the corporate strategy, its mission and goals. The project should correspond to the strategy of the business development of HP and its mission.

5. What do the aggregate project plan and the plan of record illustrate to upper management?

The aggregate project plan and the plan of record illustrate the potential of the project in comparison with other products and the performance of the company. The aggregate project plan and the plan of record illustrate how relevant the project may be to other successful project implemented by the company.

6. When should the out-plan projects be considered for inclusion?

The out-plan projects should be considered for inclusion only in cases, when these projects can enhance consistently the marketing performance of the company. The company can include out-plan projects, when the project fits the current business environment, which changes and so may change projects impact on the company’s development.

7. What was your impression of the impact of HP’s project selection process had on the number of projects underway?

HP selects projects carefully and invests in projects, which are reliable enough to bring the company return on investments with relatively low risks. As a result, the number of projects is not very large but the effectiveness of their implementation is high due to the careful approach of the company to the project selection.

8. How did the new project selection process handle non-numeric type projects? Risks? How did this new process alter new project proposals at HP?

The new project selection process needs additional analysis of non-numeric projects because the company should assess adequately risks and it is difficult to quantify risks in non-numeric projects. Therefore, the company may involve some qualitative methods of analysis to evaluate risks adequately and adapt to the company’s needs. The new process makes new project proposals oriented on the quantitative analysis mainly.